Ch. 7 Back
Daley woke up groggy and slightly confused. Why wasn't she in a sleeping bag? And why were there arms wrapped tightly around her, her buried into an unknown form?
The events of the previous day came rushing back to her in an instant. Oh yeah, and she couldn't help but smile. Looking up, she saw Nathan, still asleep, snoring a little, his chin on the top of Daley's head.
"Mmm," Daley moaned before falling back asleep.
Nathan woke up, feeling Daley curled up in his arms. He grinned to himself, and didn't feel like leaving any time soon. Kissing the top of her head, he stroked her hair for a bit, before she began to stir.
"Morning beautiful," he whispered in her ear. Daley smiled and turned to face him.
"Morning Handsome," she grinned and kissed him on the lips.
Nathan kissed back briefly before pulling away, just to hold Daley close. He could hear her rhythmic beating even through his sweatshirt.
"We should get going," Daley murmured softly.
"I don't want to leave," Nathan sighed.
"You were the one in a hurry to leave yesterday!" Daley giggled.
"Don't tell me you want to leave my arms?" Nathan joked.
"I don't. Didn't you hear what I just said?"
Nathan laughed and kissed her softly, "then why don't we stay?"
"Because eventually they will come looking for us. Come on, I know a way that doesn't go through dense jungle."
"Really? You could have told me," Nathan joked, Daley running a finger over his long, deep scar.
"Well, you were looking for me, so no. It's just along the beach- to the right of the camp, actually."
"Oh really? Hey, do you want to make this our SSS?"
"SSS? Don't you mean SOS, which still doesn't make sense…?"
"No, silly," Nathan laughed, "Secret Snogging Spot," Nathan laughed.
Daley laughed as well, "okay. We will not show anyone this spot. If anyone finds it, we'll assume they found it by themselves. And found it after us, so we will ask them to leave."
"Yeah," Nathan laughed, "Although no one's really traveled the coast- only the jungle."
"Dumb move on their part. Honestly, plenty of places on the right side, anyway, since I haven't really seen the left, which would have been good places to make camp, or hang out, etc."
"Well, we have this one. Here, help me pack all this stuff up into my bag."
She did, and soon Nathan pulled his bag up onto his back, and gently grabbed Daley's hand.
"Come on, let's go," Nathan smiled. They started to walk along the beach, silent because they didn't need to say anything. They were both thinking the same thing.
They reached the camp after a while, seeing all there friends sitting around the fire, all with concerned looks on their faces. Daley and Nathan immediately dropped hands and ran over.
"I found her!" Nathan gasped. Everyone around the camp stared at him in surprise.
"We all thought you guys were dead!" Melissa gasped.
"Well, we're not. We're fine, well, except Nathan, who has a cut from a branch. It was bleeding pretty badly, only now it's stopped, so he needs something to clean it."
Everyone just kept staring at them.
"What?" Nathan asked, "Does it really look that bad?" Daley nodded a bit, "but not that much," she admitted.
Jackson shook his head, "it's not that, just… well… did you guys, um…"
"No!" Nathan gasped, staring at Jackson in horror.
"I figured, however… it looks like you spent the night together."
"Well we didn't because A. It was too cold! We both wore two sweatshirts B. Nathan's exhausted C. We've never done it before, never even thought about it and D. God, I'm waiting till I'm married- sorry, but I'd run away and never talk to him again if he tried to," Daley admitted.
"Well, that's not really the only concern," Melissa slapped Jackson (playfully as well as in punishment, but he muttered "ow!" anyway,) and continued to gape, "you guys didn't die!"
"What?" both asked in shock.
"Yeah," Abby murmured, "last night there was another huge hurricane. It nearly took up our tent."
"We didn't see it," Nathan gaped.
"Yeah. It was really peaceful, actually- I've never had a better night of sleep, honestly," Daley raised her eyebrows.
"Well, we didn't. None of us got a wink of sleep- worried for you guys, and worried for ourselves," Eric said a little angrily.
"Well, I…" Nathan stared at them all, "It was windy, but we thought that was because we were up on a cliff…"
"You were on a cliff?" asked Lex.
"Yeah," Daley shrugged, "I just walked along the beach. Frankly, if Nathan hadn't done the same he wouldn't have the Grand Canyon on his cheek."
"Hey!" Nathan was grinning anyway.
"But… oh wow," Lex murmured, "a tree nearly blew into a cliff we saw to the right of the plane."
"What?" Both gasped.
"Yeah," Taylor said worriedly.
"You guys nearly died," Jackson said.
"Oh wow," they both stared at each other, "we must have been asleep!"
"So it would seem," Melissa laughed. Soon everyone was laughing- it was pretty funny.
"Well, I've learned my lesson," Daley laughed, "no more running away."
"I'm sorry Day," Lex murmured.
"It's fine," Daley shrugged. They hugged, and Lex apologized to Nathan too.
"All's well that ends well," Nathan smiled.
"Definitely," Taylor grinned, and all went about their daily activities.
Melissa went into the tent to get one of her books to read by the ocean when a piece of paper fell out of it.
Dear Melissa-
Hey! Tomorrow I asked everyone if we could have a day of just us, so prepare for a day of us just hanging out. That night we'll have that proper date like I promised- no one is allowed to bother us at all. Our wonderful day together is from when we wake up to a little before dinner, and our date is dinner and hanging out together afterwards. Basically, the entire day is a date, but you know what I mean.
Love,
Jackson
Melissa smiled as she read the note, but what she was really smiled at was that Jackson signed the note "Love,", which of course made her amazingly giddy inside.
I can't wait for tomorrow!
(1, 051 Words) Aww. I love the next chapter! Almost as much as I love the 6th chapter! Just so you know…